Share this article

The artist painstakingly works on the features of his subjects for hours, using an extremely fine brush, and the end result is a piece so true to life that it almost appears three-dimensional.

Everything from cracks in the skin to liver spots and even tufts of unruly hair are captured in Kassan's pieces.

The 38-year-old uses inspiration from walls in his neighbourhood of Brooklyn for the backgrounds of his paintings

Kassan uses an incredibly fine paintbrush to shadow the eye of one of his older subjects

The 38-year-old artist captures every fine detail, from the creases in trousers to liver spots on the hands

One of Kassan's subjects is seen with his eyes downcast and looking sombre in one of his particularly haunting portraits

And although it looks as if his subjects have been painted straight onto an urban wall, Kassan has revealed that the backgrounds of his paintings have been created to mimic real walls in his Brooklyn neighbourhood.

Kassan was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, and went on to study Fine Arts at the Syracuse University in New York.

After he lost his job as a creative director, following the attacks on New York's Twin Towers in September 2011, he began to purse a career as a full-time painter.

Kassan has explained that painting is his way of 'understanding the world around me in depth'

In one portrait, a woman is seen clutching her hands in a prayer formation

Another spectacularly detailed painted sees an elderly woman looking directly up and into the eyes of the viewer

He explains to FEMAIL that art has always been his way of of 'understanding the world around me in depth.'

He adds: 'I love the textures and abstractions I see on the streets of my neighbourhood in Brooklyn, as well as the people of my city.

'I spend a long time with a painting because I'm really involved in portraying the subject in the most honest and authentic way that I can.

'All of my painting subjects are life-sized, so that viewer of the painting can interact with the painting as we interact with other people in our lives.'

In one portrait, a young lady is seen with her shirt draped around her shoulders, looking melancholy

Another woman is seen looking seductively in front of her, with one arm of her shirt loosely fallen around her shoulders